Kristin Ann King

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Kristin Ann King

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Writing Sample

(From “Mystery of the Missing Mothers,” which appeared in Missing Links and Secret Histories, Aqueduct Press, 2013.)

In the debate between Ninhursag and Enki, the two gods argue to determine which character is better and more deserving of passing on into the future: Nanshe or Nancy. Unfortunately, the part of the tablets that declare the winner was driven over by a van and utterly destroyed.

Ninhursag: “Your Nancy is only a cardboard cutout of a person. She has no self-doubt, fears, or social blunders.”

Enki: “Who cares about that, when she has such a fast car! My Nancy can fly through the lands and none can catch her. She can squirm out of any tight place. Truly Nisaba watches over her. Meanwhile your goddess has to go around on her own two feet, slow and plodding like a mule.”

Ninhursag: “Your detective doesn’t do anything important, she’s good for nothing, all she does is save jewels for rich people, and she doesn’t praise the goddesses, and she even insults the black-headed people. My god looks out for widows and orphans and beggars, and if rich people try to take the temple offerings meant to be shared, she boots them right out. If she walks on two feet it is because she is truly with the people and does not scorn them or attempt to speed past them in a smelly old chariot.”

Enki: “No, your goddess wasn’t worth anything even in her times of glory, she was just a minor deity in one little temple, and if it weren’t for those buried tablets, nobody would remember her at all. My Nancy is a folk hero whose name will live on so long as there are criminals to catch.”

Ninhursag: “My goddess was praised far and wide, and if it weren’t for her watching over the Gulf, nobody would have had anything to eat, and the entire Sumerian civilization would have died out, and that means there wouldn’t have been any writing and Western civilization would consist entirely of barbarians.”